TIME TO DECLUTTER!!!
Have yourself a nice breakfast and get to it. That storage room is calling! How to start? Just open the door and pick up the first thing closest to the door and put it in the appropriate pile. Garbage, Recycle, Sell, Deal With. Now if it’s something you want to keep, you may need to make a pile of these things until you have a bit of room. Work yourself into the room from the door around the room.
Take a few breaks during the day and I will see if I can update you on my purge. Good luck, make sure you let me know how you’re doing. Either comment to this post, or go into my ‘About Karen’ page and e-mail me.
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My Think about pile is getting rather large!!
Okay, so I’ve come across my canning jars, and this is what I’ve done. I’ve made sure each one has a ring that fits it or a lid. If not, they get recycled. To store them in a regular box try laying them on their sides, you will fit more in a box, and if spiders crawl in they can get out again (I just hate finding dried up crumpled spidies).
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Michelle Kennedy and Bill Biko, Karen Biko. Karen Biko said: RT @tweetmeme DAY 1 of the 31 Day Declutter Challenge!– Get sorting that Storage Space http://bit.ly/d0odwE [...]
The garage will be the storage space…been not able to do for 7 months, since we moved in….seems like a mountain to tall to climb…will see if we can start it.
Ok…..Hi Karen, my name is also Karen. I got a friend request in my email and I was just checking out your site. I will be starting the decluttering of my house come Monday morning!! I need to so bad. I have been meaning to do this and now this is my chance to get things done! Thanks for sharing!!
Hey Karen,
Always great to meet another Karen! Sorry for the slow reply, summer has been quite busy. Hopefully you find all the info helpful and can get through the clutter, thanks for the comment.
Karen
Sadly my dumping room is my scrapbook room
BUT thanks to you it will be getting tackled all this week 
Hi Christine,
You and me both, even though I’ve gone through the declutter process, things still seem to pile up over time. My studio starts to become the ‘dumping ground’ so easily, so I will be in there this week working away. Actually I started, I’ve just finished ripping apart all the craft magazines, and Martha Steward magazines and now I have three nice tidy binders with all my articles in them. I will do a post on it later…
I will be thinking of you while I putter away this week.
Karen
Hi Karen,
Saw you on youtube, after searching for advice and motivation to declutter. Love your site and the first steps to take. My dumping room has been the basement and the garage. My issue is I work from 8-3p.m. six days a week, plus a part-time job 5-10p.m. three days a week and work Sundays 11-6p.m. (I’m Single at 55)
When I cook, I’ll grill a weeks worth of food to last all week and take to work. When I’m well rested, by going to bed at a decent hour by 10p.m. it allows me to have some extra energy to attact some clutter after work. So Karen, do you have any advice how I should attact my clutter.
Thank you,
Peggy
My gosh….Peggy, it sounds like you spend most of your time working!! Well, I know how tough it is to be working so much and not having a chance to get to all that clutter.
I guess your best bet is to focus on one room. Depending where you are it might be a good idea to start with that garage area. I say this because while the weather is nicer it will be better working out there…when the colder times hit, then it will be better working inside.
Because of your hectic schedule, you might just have to work a bit at a time. Maybe the 31 days won’t work, but you can still work through the same principal with a longer time period. Set your boxes up with disposal, donate, and think about, and make sure you can leave them in place for a while as you work through the garage. Then give yourself a time assignment … “I’m going to work in the garage today for an hour”, and then keep doing that on a daily or weekly basis. Make sure that when you fill a box, then you either get it to donation or garbage so you can start to see some results.
I hope this helps, and don’t forget to celebrate those little accomplishments.
Thank you Karen for the advice on which room to attact my clutter first, the garage! You have great insight.
I am determined to get each room, cupboard, and closet orginized. I will set a timer to motivate me to take action.
I have taken 5 days off work in the past to catch-up and focus on decluttering, but I find I push myself so hard trying to get alot done, so by the time I go back to work I’m exhausted. So now I limit just 2 or 3 days off.
Need to take more time reading your advice and ideas, also would like to read your new book.
Thanks again,
Peggy
Hi, Karen. I don’t have a storage space like so, but I have storage in every room. I think I will tackle every one of them individually. Thanks for the advice.
Hi, Karen. I live in a small trailer with only one bedroom. It was originally a two bedroom but the wall to the small bedroom was taken out to enlarge the living room. This was my parents home and I have inherited it after they passed away. I have started in the bedroom, which is the room on one end. I have cleared away all the clothing that was not in drawers. (my bad) I followed your advice and put those pieces that I haven’t worn or looked at for a year into a bag to give away. I cleaned out a drawer that had my parents things in there (mostly pictures) and put them on top of the dresser for later sorting. That’s as far as I have gotten. Can’t do too much Arthritis and Fibromyalgia limit my physical activities. But, I do feel I have accomplished a lot! I still have another drawer, a cabinet and the closet to clean out. That is what I will be working on this week. Thanks for all your advice.
Great Job Patty….It just takes those first few steps to get you going! Always work at your own pace so that the changes don’t hit you too hard, but enough that you see some accomplishments. Having a weekly goal is a great thing. Keep my up to date on how you are doing….Have a great 2012!